Sudharshan R and Anirudh Raghunath

“Stop riding a Luna and get on a Harley-Davidson”

This was the message the then head-coach sent to India’s No.3 batsman during the second innings of the Vizag test between India and SA in 2019. The said batsman, who was batting at 8 off 61, would score 73 runs off the next 87 balls he faced. This is a batsman, who has the game to score quickly when circumstances are favorable, but more importantly, has the patience, grit and determination, which few batsmen of the modern era have displayed in their careers. He was famously challenged by R Ashwin – that the latter would shave half of his moustache, if he ever lofted an off spinner over mid-on for a six. Yes, it is the one and only Cheteshwar Pujara we are talking about.

Early Days:

When Rahul Dravid, nicknamed “The Wall” for his near-unbreakable defensive game, approached his retirement from test cricket, there were worries about who would take his place. But India had a ready replacement grinding through in domestic cricket, and making tons of runs. Pujara was handed a deserving debut in the second test vs Australia in 2010 and made a match winning 72 in the second innings from No.3. Despite a strong start to his career, with tons of runs at home and decent success overseas, he would go on to have a tumultuous career. He would go through numerous ups and downs. Quite symbolic of his career was his 100th test – the second test of BGT 2023 vs Australia at Delhi – where he would get out for a duck in his first innings, before holding one end and hitting the winning runs in a tricky chase of 115 to lead India to an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

Pujara has been the quintessential team man, doing what the team needs – open the innings, bat long hours, take blow after blow and be the player around whom the other players flourish. But he would still be dropped because he scored at a low strike rate, only to come back and prove his captain wrong with a critical knock. Most of the time, his contributions would not be the most eye-catching, often underestimated by the casual fan, but would be very vital. For example, the Lord’s test of 2014, played on a green top, is remembered for Ajinkya Rahane’s century on the first day. But Pujara made 28 runs off 117 balls, blunting the new ball, thereby making life easier for the batters to follow. In the second innings too, he made a valuable 43 off 83, as India would go on to register their first test win outside Asia in 3 years. 

Accumulator in Asia: 

In the early part of his career, he made a habit of making big tons. His first test hundred finished at 159, which came in Hyderabad vs NZ in 2012. His second test ton would be a double hundred vs England at Ahmedabad later that year. Four of his first five tons were scores above 135. In 2015, Virat Kohli, in his first test series as full time captain, dropped Pujara for the first two tests vs Sri Lanka, citing his low scoring rate. In the third test though, Pujara came back to the team as opener, and carried his bat for a vital 145* off 289 balls, batting close to five hours. He continued his form with valuable knocks of 31 and 77 in a low scoring test vs South Africa at Mohali, on a rank turner. He hit another purple patch, scoring four 50s and three hundreds in 8 tests vs NZ and England in late 2016. 

BGT 2017 presented the toughest challenge at home for India in five years. They went 0-1 down, and fell behind in the first innings at Bengaluru. Pujara came up with a masterclass, and went on to score 92 on a rank turner and negotiated a rampaging Lyon, leading India to a comeback win. He rounded out 2017 with one double hundred and three hundreds in the next 7 tests he played. In the next significant assignment at home, a series vs SA in 2019, Pujara scored 2 fifties in the four innings he batted. Pujara’s form suffered a decline from 2020, an extended lean patch led to him being dropped from the test team in early 2022. Despite that lean patch, his overall record in Asia looks very good – in 55 tests, Pujara averages 56.5, with 20 fifties and 14 hundreds.

Troubles in SEN(A)W:

For all the accumulation in favorable conditions, Pujara has had trouble making big scores outside Asia. He has played several significant innings, like the one at Lord’s mentioned above – but he has largely struggled to convert his starts into big scores. After an underwhelming first tour to SA in 2010, he would see great success in his next tour to the country in 2013. He followed up his 153* at Johannesburg with a 70 at Durban. The attacking shots he played off a steaming Dale Steyn at the Bullring showed his potential. Later on, he would become more hesitant to play those shots off the backfoot, which would severely limit his scoring options in seaming conditions. Pujara did not average above 35 in any series outside Asia till 2018, but his contributions were more about the number of balls he would face to make batting easier for the batsmen to follow. In the Johannesburg test of 2018, he scored an important fifty in extremely challenging conditions to help India to win a close contest. Later that year in England, he had a better series, as he scored 278 runs at an average of close to 40. Till now, his returns in test series outside Asia, in terms of runs, have been underwhelming – barring one great exception – Australia.

Annihilation of Australia:

Many Australian bowlers have spoken about how difficult it was to bowl to Pujara. In late 2018, India travelled to Australia in a quest to win a series in that country for the first time. Whatever the hosts threw at India, Pujara absorbed them. With three hundreds, including a double, and countless number of balls faced, Pujara simply ground the hosts down, as India registered their first ever series win. His demeanour and contrast to the aggression shown by Kohli in that series, showed just why cricket is such an amazing sport – Virat being vocal and standing up for his players and his team, and that being his driving force, on the other hand, Pujara without a word spoken, sledging the Aussies with his resolute defence –  it goes on to show that aggression and intent on the field can be multi-fold. Resilience, as rightly pointed out by Harsha Bhogle, was a concept that many young viewers of the match did not understand – but boy, Pujara was the personification of that word in that entire series. Two years later, when India registered a famous come from behind series win in Australia, much of the narrative surrounded the young guns, Rishabh Pant, Mohammad Siraj etc. But the old warhorse Pujara, had a significant role to play – especially in the draw at Sydney and the win at the Gabba. He would grind down the Aussie pace attack, take blow after blow, stand like a rock, unmoved.. His persistence took valuable time out on the final day at Sydney and provided India a great platform to actually chase down 328 at the Gabba. When reports emerged that Josh Hazlewood would not travel to India for IPL 2021, memes started trending, claiming that he was tired of bowling to Pujara and that’s why he is not coming to IPL (Pujara was also part of the CSK squad, like Hazlewood).  

Across these two tours, Pujara faced 498 balls from Pat Cummins, and 484 balls from Josh Hazlewood – tiring the two best bowlers out. One man faced more than 27% of the deliveries bowled by Cummins and Hazlewood across two tours. He also milked Nathan Lyon – Australia’s lead spinner – for a lot of runs. He averaged 96.33 vs Lyon across the two series. As Peter Lalor rightly said in “The Test”, Pujara is that batsman who in today’s era shows the value of an ‘old-school test batsman’.

Lean Patch and Comeback:

Cheteshwar Pujara, along with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, became one of the best middle order in test cricket, and were called as the engine room of the Indian team. But from 2020, all of them started going through a rough patch. Both home and away, the returns started diminishing for the trio. Despite scoring the occasional half century, Pujara did not quite get back to his scoring ways. He even started getting out early. Following an extended run of diminishing returns, and a disastrous tour to SA in early 2022, he was dropped from the Indian test team. At the age of 34, when reflexes usually slow down, it seemed that his career was over, and he would never reach 100 tests. But the hard grafter he is, he went to County Cricket – signed with Sussex – to try and regain his form.

He went on to score three double hundreds and two hundreds in 8 FC games, and carried his form into List A Cricket, where he would score three more hundreds in 8 games, amassing 600+ runs. This rich vein of form didn’t go unnoticed, as he was selected in the India Squad for the fifth test vs England in 2022. He made an immediate impression, scoring a second innings fifty in that match. In his next test series vs Bangladesh, he also scored his first test ton in close to four years and was adjudged Player of the Series.

His commitment to cricket is incredible. He would go to Chennai, on the invitation of Ashwin, and play Division Games, with the same dedication. His patience, determination and hard work are admirable, truly a role model for the modern generation. The Warrior of the Indian Test Team’s Golden Generation – Mirugam (The Beast), as R Ashwin calls him – Cheteshwar Pujara has been a legend of Indian Cricket. Here’s hoping that he continues to amass runs for the Indian test team for many more years, and leads India to a World Test Championship title later this year.